Facebook Restricts Ads on Controversial Sites

In the wake of protests over violent content on its site Facebookannounced on Friday that it will remove ads on pages or groups that contain “any violent, graphic or sexual content.”

Starting Monday, Facebook will review pages for controversial content. While this content may not technically violate Facebook’s community standards policy, if the company marks it as offensive, it will not serve ads from brands on the right-hand column of these pages.

Previously, Facebook said, advertisers selling “adult” products were able to buy ads on these pages.

“While we already have rigorous review and removal policies for content against our terms, we recognize we need to do more to prevent situations where ads are displayed alongside controversial Pages and Groups,” the company said in its post.

At First, Facebook will review sites by hand. However, there are plans to create a “more scalable, automated way to prevent and/or remove ads appearing next to controversial content.” The company said it does not believe the changes will have a large impact on Facebook’s business.

Facebook has recently faced protests from women’s rights groups who said that ads were appearing on pages and groups or promoted violence against women.

In late May, Facebook said it was reviewing its policies to identify and remove hate speech, especially on gender issues. It also said it was requiring publishers of “cruel or insensitive” remarks to authenticate their identity in order for the content to remain on Facebook.